The partial Opening of Tesla’s supercharger network for third-party electric cars in Germany this June came as a surprise. Although it had previously started in the Netherlands and then other countries in Europe and CEO Elon Musk had basically announced it for the whole world, many in Germany believed that the strict calibration law would make external charging at Tesla impossible. As it turns out, this is legally correct and even applies to own-brand electric cars if they have to pay at the supercharger. But the authorities have been turning a blind eye here and with other operators for a long time.
Tesla with the most illegal charging stations
Thousands of fast charging stations in Germany are in operation illegally, reported the Handelsblatt already about a year ago. The article mentioned in passing that this applied to all Tesla superchargers, among other things, but it was mainly about columns from independent operators such as Ionity, ENBW or Allego. At that time there were only four models of DC charging stations on the market that met German requirements. Around 3,000 already installed charging points plus the superchargers from Tesla would have to be converted, it was said at the time.
Since then, the The number of electric car charging stations in Germany has increased dramatically – but not only at Tesla not all are compliant with calibration law. Furthermore, there should only be four manufacturers whose pillars comply with German law. Those from Tesla obviously don’t count, because they already lack the required display of the amount of electricity and costs directly on the supercharger. Tesla thus has “the largest number of illegally operated charging stations” in Germany with 1,800 units, as the Handelsblatt reported in a new article on Thursday.
Other charging station operators have since followed suit, but by no means all of them. Most of the stations at Ionity are said to continue to be illegal because they cannot yet be converted or can only be converted with difficulty. At EnBW and Allego are according to the Handelsblatt now at least 70 percent of the stations conform, only Aral achieves full 100 percent. Among the charging stations themselves, only those from Alpitronic and Compleo all comply with German law, with all others there are gaps or no information.
Officials tolerate illegal electric car charging
As a year ago, representatives of German authorities told the newspaper that this situation would be tolerated. At Tesla and everyone else, the illegal operation is neither hindered nor sanctioned, said the head of the Bavarian State Office for Weights and Measures. If the current law were to be enforced, thousands of charging stations would have to be retrofitted or shut down immediately, which would trigger “a political and social outcry”. The Berlin/Brandenburg state office for measuring and calibration, which is responsible for retrofitting Tesla, announced that “work has been and is being done to ensure that the state of affairs is lawful”, but has so far not imposed any fines or even shutdowns.